Introduction
Geberit had already drawn up its first environmental strategy and implemented specific measures in 1990. Over the years, this strategy was gradually developed into a comprehensive Sustainability strategy, is now an integral part of the corporate culture, and makes a significant contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, see SDG Reporting.
Geberit stands for a high level of environmental awareness and is committed to environmentally friendly, resource-saving production as well as the development of innovative, water-saving and sustainable products. Systematic, Group-wide environmental management takes centre stage here. This is the remit of Sustainability and Process Management. Guidelines and measures pertaining to all significant environmental issues are coordinated here. A network of environmental managers practises active environmental protection at the production plants, thus ensuring that the targets and measures derived from the sustainability strategy are implemented worldwide. The environmental and occupational safety managers from all production plants meet once a year to discuss best practice and further develop Group-wide standards.
Eco-design has been an integral part of the product development process since 2007, with the aim of making each product more environmentally friendly than its predecessor throughout the entire product life cycle, see Product management and innovation. The goal here is for products to be manufactured locally, where possible, using durable, sustainable raw materials from carefully selected, predominantly regional suppliers in order to keep transport routes as short as possible. The developed products are optimised both in terms of the amount of materials used and in resource and energy consumption during usage. Returning products to an appropriate material cycle after removal is becoming increasingly important here.
Environmental criteria are considered in all decision-making processes. These processes are continuously being examined so that a proven high standard is achieved which often greatly exceeds legal requirements. Geberit’s environmental principles are defined in the Code of Conduct. The Geberit Group has a Group certificate in accordance with ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety) that is valid until 2024. All production plants, central logistics, and the management company incorporating all Group functions at headquarters in Rapperswil-Jona (CH) are certified in accordance with these three standards. In addition, five German plants are certified in accordance with ISO 50001 (energy) and nine sales companies in accordance with ISO 9001 (quality).
The annual preparation of a corporate life cycle assessment has been an established part of Geberit’s environmental management since 1991. It covers all production plants worldwide, the logistics centre in Pfullendorf (DE), other smaller logistics units and the larger sales and management companies. The applied Swiss Ecological Scarcity Method takes into consideration a wide range of environmental impact factors (emissions, resources, waste) and summarises them as a key figure known as eco-points (version 2021). In the case of electricity, the effectively purchased local electricity mix (market-based) of the respective supplier is considered.
The environmental impact decreased substantially by 17.6%, and CO2 emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) by 19.6% in the reporting year. The environmental impact in relation to currency-adjusted net sales (eco-efficiency) dropped by 13.4%, and sales-related CO2 emissions by 15.6%. These figures are well above the long-term target of 5% per year. This progress is founded largely on measures implemented in the new CO2 strategy, including improvements in efficiency at the energy-intensive ceramics plants and the targeted purchasing of green electricity with proof of origin. Since the acquisition of the ceramics business in 2015, the absolute environmental impact has been reduced by 49.1% and CO2 emissions by 50.0%. Eco-efficiency improved by 62.6% in the same period, while sales-related CO2 emissions (CO2 intensity) fell by 63.2%. For other measures in the CO2 strategy, see also GRI 305.
For a compact overview of all the relevant developments in the reporting year, see Business Report > Business and financial review > Financial Year 2023 > Sustainability. Detailed key figures on the environmental impact are provided at Key figures sustainability > Environment. Geberit’s contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals can be found in the separate SDG Reporting.